The 2018 Kent County Swimming championships concluded in fine style at the Olympic pool based in the London Aquatic Centre at the weekend where Sevenoaks Swimmers were crowned the top Kent Swimming club having won the greatest amount of points for both girl and boy swimmers throughout the four weeks of the Championships.

Once more the Sevenoaks swimmers proved their brilliance by producing some outstanding racing.

First up on the agenda early Saturday morning was the boys 200m Individual Medley. In the 14 year old age group, Louis Hayes won Gold with 6th going to Jacob Hudson. Shortly after, an abundance of 4th places were secured by Ellis Stanhope (16) Aiden McMillan (15) and Oliver Dennis (11). Caiden Hibbert (13), Jacob Hudson and Oscar Wilson followed with 6th places and Eddie Hammond in 7th and Jaedon Lynch in 8th. Macauley Johnston, Noah Enticknap, Euan Terry, Robert Allen and Chris Lee also put in some superb performances.

In the girls 50m backstroke, the heats and finals were awash with Sevenoaks talent. Jessica Harmer kicked off with a Gold in the 10/11 yrs shortly followed by an amazing 12 yrs final, with Eva Okaro winning Gold and twin sister Izabella winning Bronze, Millie Armstrong 4th and Emily Brown 5th. Millie Childs (14) and Elspeth Watson (13) both won Silvers with Imogen Stoddart bringing home the Bronze in the 13 yrs. Amy Farthing (20) won 4th while Ellie Vowell and Emma Evans-Wilson both gained 5th places with Daisy Widdowson swimming well for 6th and Maddie Glen 8th. In the Open final only Millie Childs (13) qualified with a much older field and finished super 8th.

Next it was time for the boys to shine in the Butterfly 50m sprints. Making the finals in the over 17 yrs was Chris Cheng who secured a Bronze and a place in the Open finals, a feat replicated by Louis Hayes by winning the Gold in the 14 yrs. Nathan Rodrigues managed a Bronze in the 16yrs. Aiden McMillan produced arguably the swim of the morning. Ranked 3rd in the final he executed a fantastic race to finish in first and win a hugely deserved Gold medal. Ben Strebel & Jaedon Lynch swam hard for 5th & 8th place. There were also super swims from Stephen Weller, Chris Lee and George Tyler (17), Ellis Stanhope, Ethan Hunter, Teddy Wallace and Dom Percy (16), Oscar Wilson, Eddie Hamond, Robert Allen and Torsten Mangat (15), Zach Raymond, Euan Terry, Jacob Hudson and Dillon Bentley (14), Caiden Hibbert, Noah Enticknap and Tom Creasey (13) Macauley Johnston, Josh Wood, Max Cooper and William Jarrett (12) and Jonathan Vowell (11).

In the Open final Chris Cheng managed credible 4th and Louis finished in 8th.

The afternoon saw a swathe of Sevenoaks swimmers back on the podium with the boys 50m Breaststroke. Albert Whitlock, Jaedon Lynch, Louis Hayes, Jacob Hudson, Oscar Wilson, Dom Percy and Stephen Weller stormed into the finals. Albert swam a strong race and secured the Bronze in the 11yrs to start proceedings. Jaedon followed and was on a roll, clinching his second Gold of the day. 14yr olds Louis and Jacob went off head to head, this time with Louis also winning his second Gold and Jacob finishing well for Silver. In the 16 yrs Dom Percy fought tough opposition and managed a great 6th while Oscar secured a superb Bronze in the 15 yrs. Finally, Stephen Weller swam well for 7th place. In the heats the following swam well for some excellent PB’s: George Tyler (17) Ethan Hunter (16), Robert Allen, Eddie Hammond, Aiden McMillan & Torsten Mangat (15), Ben Strebel & Euan Terry (14), Caiden Hibbert, Tom Creasey, Thiago Gentles & Noah Enticknap (13) & Osh Crombie & Zac Howard (12) and finally Devon Tannock, Johnny Vowell & Zach Loder (11),

The final event of the day saw the girls return to the pool with the super exciting 50m Freestyle sprints. All these outstanding girls managed to either hit or better their respective PB’s in every race... a feat not previous witnessed by any Sevenoaks coach.

Sunday witnessed the last day of the 2018 Championships with the results produced by Sevenoaks again being excellent:

In the girls 11 yrs 200m Individual Medley, Eva Okaro added another Gold to her collection with sister Izabella adding another Silver. Jessica Harmer also won a Silver in the 11 yrs along with Elspeth Watson in the 14 yrs. Amy Farthing, Alyze Gentles, Imogen Stoddart and Maddie Glen winning Bronze medals in the respective age groups added to the medal tally along with Millie Childs grabbing 4th and Millie Armstrong a 5th. Jasmine Wallace produced a storming swim to win a 6th in the 15 yrs and Sarah Williams and Abigail Saunders winning 8th places saw Sevenoaks rising in the table of top overall club. Other swimmers who produced fabulous swims were: Emily Brown, Martha Roberts, Hollie Gushlow, Katie Vowell, Megan Marter, and Aoife Lauerman.

The boys were focussed on the 50m backstroke. There was no surprise when Louis Hayes won Gold in the 14-year event. Ethan Hunter, Ellis Stanhope and Nathaniel Rodrigues all qualified for the final in the 16 yrs where all 3 boys swam superbly - Ethan secured the Bronze, Nathan 5th and Ellis 6th. Oliver Dennis was on fine form and grabbed another Gold in the 11 yrs with Devon Tannock finishing in 7th. Also managing 7th places were Caiden Hibbert and Robert Allen. Joseph Box finished off the medals in the backstroke with a fine Bronze in the 12 years. The heats produced some wonderful PBs from Jonathan Vowell & Alex Evans-Wilson (11), Albert Whitlock & Macaulay Johnston (12), Tom Creasey, Noah Enticknap, Jaedon Lynch and James Fry (13) Ben Strebel, Zac Raymond, Euan Terry, Dillon Bentley and Jacob Hudson (14) Eddie Hammond, Torsten Mangat & Aiden McMillan (15), and Chris Lee (17).

In the afternoon the 50m Breaststroke for the girls featured some wonderful racing. In the 13 yrs, four girls made the finals and finished in a spectacular 1,2,3, for Sevenoaks: Imogen Stoddart winning Gold, Kara Dimond Silver and Holli Gushlow the Bronze, while in the 12yrs another 4 girls made the finals: Eva winning her final Gold of the championships, Emily Brown the Silver with Izabella Okaro and Martha Roberts finishing in 6th and 7th respectively. Jessica won her final Gold in the 10/11 yrs with Alyze finishing in 6th and Abigail in 7th. Maddie Glen gained another well-deserved Gold in the 15 yrs with Ellie Vowell finishing strongly for Silver and Issy Tyler a great 7th. In the 14 yrs both Megan Marter and Ruby Jarrett finished well for 5th and 7th with Amy Farthing finishing her Kents in a fine 6th in the 17& overs. In the heats the girls showed strength in depth with Poppy Homes and Sarah Williams (16) Olivia Chapman and Jasmine Wallace (15) Katie Vowell, Daisy Widdowson & Millie Childs (14), Betty Simpson (13) Rosie Deacon, Daisy McMillan, Rosie Lauerman, Sami Das and Millie Armstrong (12) and Fern Gray (11) swimming brilliantly in the heats.

Finally finishing the Championships, the boys 50m freestyle saw Nathaniel Rodrigues (16) take Gold and qualify for the Open final in which he finished a fine 8th. Louis Hayes finished his Kents with yet another Gold and Stephen Weller finished with a Bronze medal in the 17 yrs & over and secured a place in the Open final where he went one better and finished with an amazing Silver. Joseph Box and Zach Raymond also added to the medals with both swimming great races to win Bronze in their age groups. Eddie Hammond won a fine 5th as did Jaedon Lynch. Ellis Stanhope and Tom Creasey fought hard for 6th. Great swims were also posted by George Tyler, Chris Lee, Ethan Hunter, Teddy Wallace, Dom Percy, Oscar Wilson, Aiden McMillan, & Robert Allen, as well as Euan Terry, Ben Strebel, Dillon Bentley, Caiden Hibbert, Noah Enticknap, James Fry and Albert Whitlock.

This brought an end to a hugely successful Kent Championships. Sevenoaks swimmers should be justifiably proud of their achievements, winning a magnificent 54 Gold, 43 Silver and 43 Bronze and 197 finalist places.

Huge thanks to Kent swimming for their dedication to such a superb event and to the coaches, officials, helpers and parents for their hard work and continuous support.

The penultimate weekend of the Kent County Championships proved to be another huge success with a plethora of medals for swimmers from Sevenoaks SC. Crystal Palace was again the venue for the weekend with the Boys backstroke and freestyle and Girls’ breaststroke and fly being the focus.

In the girls 100m butterfly, the 10/11 heats witnessed super swims from Alyze Gentles, Abigail Saunders, Valentina Groves and Fern Gray. Another event couldn’t finish without the Okaro twins on the podium with Izabella winning Bronze and Eva another Gold with Millie Armstrong, the 3rd of our finalists, swimming well well to finish 6th. Elspeth proved herself a formidable Fly swimmer, repeating her performance of last year by winning Gold in the 13 yrs. Shortly followed by Lillie Chambers and Katie Vowell winning 5th & 8th respectively in the 14 yrs.

The boys were focussed on the 200m backstroke where medal success was forthcoming in the 14-year-old category with Louis Hayes and 11 yr old Oliver Dennis securing Gold with Ethan Hunter coming in 4th place in the 16yrs following a gutsy swim. Jonny Vowell (11) pulled out all the stops for 5th place with Caiden Hibbert (13) swimming hard for 6th. Both Tom Creasey (13) and Robert Allen fought hard for 7th places in the age groups. Super times were also posted by Chris Lee, Aiden McMillan, Ollie Coote, Ben Strebel, Euan Terry, & Macauley Johnston in their respective age groups.

In the second session of the day it was the turn of the boys 100m backstroke and kicking off the medals again was Oliver Dennis (11) and Louis Hayes (14) both storming to their Gold medal positions. Back fighting out for places in the 10/11 yrs were Devon Tannock and Jonny Vowell with the former gaining 5th and the latter 6th. 16 yr old Ethan Hunter bagged another 4th place with Zac Raymond (14) finishing in 5th. Robert Allen and Caiden Hibbert finished the boy’s success with an 8th place a piece. There were some fabulous swims in the heats from Macauley Johnston (12), Tom Creasey, Noah Enticknap & Jaedon Lynch (13), Ben Strebel, Euan Terry & Jacob Hudson (14) Aiden McMillan & Eddie Hamond (15), Ben Channon (16) and Chris Lee (17)

In the final event of the Saturday the girls participated in the gruelling 200m butterfly. Top swim of the day in this event went to Elspeth Watson (13) who once again secured another Gold medal. Tiny Valentina Groves (11) grew in stature to bag a magnificent Bronze with Holli Gushlow (13) storming to 4th. Aoife Lauerman and Amy Farthing (17) finished in 6th with Lillie Chambers (14) in 7TH.

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Sunday at a packed Palace again saw an abundance of excellent swims and times posted by the team from Sevenoaks.

Racing in the 200m freestyle, the boys were determined not to be outdone by their female teammates.

The afternoon session was again awash with excellent swimming, times and effort from the Sevenoaks competitors.

The boy’s 100m freestyle final event in the 14 yrs saw 3 Sevenoaks swimmers make the final, Hayes & Strebel coming 1st & 5th respectively with a great effort also being made by Zac Raymond coming 7th. Ellis Stanhope stormed home to a fine Silver in the 16 yrs with Oliver Dennis (11) & Joseph Box (12) finishing well for 5th places. Tom Creasey and Jaedon Lynch battled it out in the 13 yrs with Creasey finishing in 6th and Lynch in 7th. Eddie Hammond was the only 15yr old finalist and swam well for 6th place.

Final races of the day saw the girls back in the pool for the punishing 200 breast, arguably the toughest race, not that it bothered the girls… Eva was back on the podium joined by Holli Gushlow (13) to collect their Gold medals joined by Abigail Saunders (11) and Sarah Williams (16) both winning fantastic Silvers. Maddie Glen and Imogen Stoddart stormed home for their Bronze medals and Amy finished in 4th. Izabella Okaro added more medals to her growing collection by finishing in 5th, a feat replicated by Alyze Gentles. Both Katie Vowell and Kara Dimond swam strong races for 6th and 7th respectively and Martha Roberts (12) showed her strength for an 8th place.

Sevenoaks continued their fine form at the weekend as the Kent Championships 2018 got well under way with the 200m and 100m events in Fly and Breaststroke for the boys and Backstroke and Free for the girls.

Starting proceedings on Saturday were the boys in their quest for glory in the 100m fly. First off to a ‘flying’ start were the youngsters, Oliver Dennis, Thomas Johnston (11) and Max (10) with Oliver qualifying being the first to qualify for the finals, shortly followed by Joseph Box (12) Jaedon Lynch & Caiden Hibbert (13), Euan Terry, Louis Hayes and Ben Strebel (14), Oscar Wilson & Aiden McMillan (15) and finally Nathan Rodrigues and Ellis Stanhope (16). Oliver swam well in his inaugural final for 8th place in the 10/11yrs, Joseph Box fought hard for 6th place, a feat replicated by Jaedon with Caiden finishing in 8th. Ben battled hard for 5th with Euan following in 6th and Louis bagging yet another Gold medal in the 14 yrs category. Shortly after came the 15 yrs final and Aiden matched last weeks’ medals grabbing another Silver with Oscar battling hard for 6th. Then Nathan and Ellis went head to head with Nathan bringing home the Silver medal and Ellis 4th. Finally, Chris Cheng managed a deserved 5th place in the 17/over age group. Superb performances in the heats also came from Josh Wood, William Jarrett, Max Cooper and Macauley Johnston (12), Jacob Hudson (14), Oliver Coote & Eddie Hammond (15), Teddy Wallace (16), George Tyler & Chris Lee (17).

Next came the turn of the girls with the 200m Backstroke. Starting the medal haul for the girls was 11 yr old Jessica Harmer who managed a Silver with Alyze Gentles finishing well in 5th. Millie Armstrong added to the medal haul with a Silver in the 12yrs age group, with Eva Okaro and twin sister Izabella finishing in 5th & 7th. Elspeth Watson and Imogen Stoddart (13) battled strongly and were rewarded with Silver and Bronze respectively. Adding to the Silver medals was Millie Childs (14) with Katie Vowell, Daisy Widdowson & Lillie Chambers bagging 6th, 7th & 8th in the same age group. Next up were the 15 yr olds with sole competitor, Jasmine Wallace, finishing superbly in 6th place. The only 16yr old competing was Emma Evans-Wilson who battled hard throughout and finished strongly for 4th place.

The second session of the day got underway with the boys gruelling 200m butterfly. Tough youngster Oliver Dennis kicked off the proceedings again with a fabulous 6th place. In the 12 yrs Macauley Johnston also swam well and managed a well-deserved 5th with William Jarrett finishing in 8th. Jaedon Lynch and Caiden Hibbert (13) were back in the pool and finished 6th & 7th and Noah Enticknap 10th with Ben Strebel & Euan Terry finishing in 5th & 6th in the 14 yrs age group. Aiden McMillan was the only 15yrs entry for Sevenoaks and made it count by adding a Bronze medal to his haul. Finally, Ellis Stanhope (16) was back battling it out for the medals, this time he showed true class and finished victorious with a Gold Medal and Junior Champion Cup too.

Finally, after a long day, the girls headed to the starting blocks for the 100m backstroke and with Jessica Harmer (11) swimming brilliantly to win Silver and Alyze Gentles gained 4th place. In the 12yrs category we had 4 swimmers qualify for the final, with Millie Armstrong and Eva Okaro bagging Silver and bronze medals with Isla Murphy and Izabella Okaro finishing in 5th & 6th. In the 13 yrs Imogen Stoddart and Elspeth gained fabulous Silver and Bronze and in the 14 yrs the battle was between Katie Vowell, Daisy Widdowson and Millie Childs with Millie bagging the Silver and Daisy and Katie finishing well in 7th & 8th place. Jazzy Wallace was the only finalist for the 15 yrs along with Emma Evans-Wilson in the 16yrs in the 17/over with Emma winning a wonderful Bronze and Jazzy 8th. and Amy Farthing 6th.

Sunday commenced with the boys 100m Breaststroke. The heats started with Johnny Vowell, Zach Loder (11) & Jacob Crombie (10) all swimming well in the 10/11 yrs. William Jarrett, Zach Howard, Macauley Johnston, Josh Wood & Josh Crombie all swam well in the 12 yrs with Albert Whitlock and Seamus Hamilton qualifying for the finals. Thiago Gentles also produced a great swim in the 13 yrs with Tom Creasey, Noah Enticknap and Jaedon Lynch bagging places in the final. In the 14 yrs Noah Saunders, Dillon Bentley, Euan Terry & Ben Strebel produced good swims along with Zac Raymond, Louis Hayes & Jacob Hudson swimming their way to the finals. In the 15 yr age group, Robert Allen & Aiden McMillan swam well with Eddie Hammond, Oscar Wilson and Ollie Coote all bagging a place in the finals. Dominic Percy, Ellis Stanhope & George Tyler, Sevenoaks’ only 16 & 17 yr old breaststrokers, also swam well with Dom & George gaining places in the finals.

In the finals Seamus and Albert battled hard with Seamus gaining a Bronze and Albert a 4th place. Jaedon produced a strong finish to add another Bronze to the Sevenoaks tally with Noah and Tom finishing in 6th & 8th place. The 14yr old final finished with a battle for Gold and Silver between Jacob & Louis with Jacob pipping Louis to the Gold medal with a storming finish and Zac finishing in 8th place. Oscar, Ollie & Eddie battled it out in the 15 yrs, with Ollie winning the Silver medal, Oscar just missing out finishing in 4th and Eddie a strong 6th. Dom Percy (16) swam a great race & jumped a place to finish in a well-deserved 6th. In the 17ys & over, a fantastic swim was produced by George, finishing in 5th place.

Next up were the girls in the 200m freestyle:

In the 10/11 yrs, Jessica Harmer won Gold with Alyze Gentles finishing in 5th. The twins were back battling it out in the 12yrs age group along with Millie Armstrong. Eva finished victorious with sister Izzy in 6th and Millie in 7th. In the 13yrs Eslpeth Watson bagged the Silver with Imogen 6th place, and Millie Childs finished 4th in the 14 yrs. Maddie Glen & Ellie Vowell had storming races in the15yrs with Maddie winning the Bronze medal and Ellie finishing in 8th. Finally, in the 17yrs & over Amy Farthing finished in 4th place.

The evening Session on Sunday commenced with the girls 100m freestyle with thefinals producing some outstanding results for the Sevenoaks swimmers. In the 10/11-year age group, three girls managed to qualify with the exciting race with Sevenoaks winning Gold for Jessica Harmer, 4th for Alyze Gentles and 7th for Amelia Tovey. The twins battled it out in the 12 yrs final with Eva Okaro winning Gold and the Silver going to sister Izabella. Imogen Stoddart gained 4th in the 13yrs with Elspeth Watson finishing in 5th. In the 14-year-old category, Millie Childs finished in 5th while Lillie Chambers gained 7th place. In the 15 yrs Sevenoaks won the Silver with Zoe Naylor-Perrot, along with Maddy Glen and Ellie Vowell securing 5th & 8th respectively. In the 16 yrs Emma Wilson came a fabulous 8th.

Finally, the boys 200m breaststrokers were up in the pool. The races saw George Tyler producing an excellent swim securing Bronze medal in the 17 yrs and over. The 16-year olds Ellis Stanhope & Dom Percy posted excellent swims to manage a 4th & 8th place respectively and in the 15 year old event Oliver Coote, Oscar Wilson & Aiden McMillan made a great race with Coote securing another fine Silver, Wilson an excellent 4th and Aiden a great 6th place. In the 14 yrs Jacob Hudson stormed home for another Gold Medal with Jaedon Lynch (13) winning a fabulous Bronze and Noah Enticknap 5th and Tom Creasey 8th along with Albert Whitlock (12) finishing in 4th. Finally, in the 10/11yrs Johnny Vowell swam well to come home in 8th.

The Kent Swimming Championships 2018 commenced this weekend with over 5,500 entries from swimmers over the County and 4,600 accepted entries. Kent is one of the largest swimming counties in England with some of the toughest qualifying times in the country.

For the past year, Sevenoaks swimmers have been seeking qualifying times in competitions, both National, Regional and local across the County and beyond. A new record has been set with over 100 Sevenoaks’ swimmers across all age groups achieving the required level and qualifying for over 700 races. Those aiming for glory in the longer events began their quest at Crystal Palace.

Saturday races consisted of the 400 IM and 400 free events with standout performances for the girls from Amy Farthing (20) and Eva Okaro winning the Gold and becoming Kent Champions along with a superb Silver for Elspeth Watson (12) in the Girls 400IM. In the same event Millie Armstrong (12) gained a 4th place, Holli Gushlow (13) and Sarah Williams (16) gained 6th places with Katie Vowell and Megan Marter (14) gaining 10th and 13th respectively.

In the 400m Freestyle, Amy was once again crowned Kent Champion and Gold medallist while Millie Childs (14) swam a brilliant race to gain a Silver. Eva Okaro (12) proved her metal and won Bronze and there were superb performances from Elsbeth Watson (13) and Maddie Glen (15) gaining 4th places, Izabella Okaro (12) came home in 5th place, Daisy McMillan (12) gained an excellent 6th while strong swims also came from Jasmine Wallace (15) and Lillie Chambers (14) both in 8th place along with Millie Armstrong (12) in 10th and Millie Lodge (15) in 12th.

Meanwhile for the boys Louis Hayes (14) won Gold and was crowned Kent Champion in both the 400 Freestyle and 400IM. Ellis Stanhope (16) claimed a Silver in the 400m Freestyle and a Bronze in the 400m Individual Medley. Aiden McMillan pulled out an incredible PB to gain Silver in the 400 IM and a superb 4th place in the 400 Free. Also joining him for 4th place in the 400m Free were Nathan Rodrigues (16) and Oliver Denis (11). Other competitors also producing excellent swims in this event were Euan Terry (14) and Ethan Hunter (16) both coming home in 5th. Ben Strebel (14), Noah Enticknap (13) and Macualay Johnston (12) produced good swims for 8th places and Jacob Hudson was 14th in the 14 yrs age group. In the 400 IM Jacob was back in the pool and gaining 6th place with Euan Terry (14) and Oscar Wilson (15) swimming well to come 8th. Eddie Hammond (15) finished strongly in 9th with Ben Strebel (14) & Robert Allen (15) both finishing well for 11th and 12th respectively.

Sunday was the long distance swims in the form of the boys 1500m and girls 800m freestyle races.

Amy Farthing added another Gold in the 800m event with Daisy McMillan swimming a brilliant race to finish in the Bronze medal place. Fabulous swims from Elspeth Watson and Millie Armstrong saw them gain 4th places, while Jasmine Wallace and Emma Evan-Wilson also swam great races for 8th and 7th places.

The boy’s gruelling 1500m race saw Ellis Stanhope grab another deserved Bronze medal and Aiden McMillan join him winning the Bronze after a huge PB. Euan Terry finished his successful weekend off with a great 4th with Noah Enticknap coming home in 5th and Ben Strebel a strong 7th.